Page:Notes and Queries - Series 10 - Volume 5.djvu/469

 io* S.V.MAY 19, 1906.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

385

imprint on the title-page of the earlie issue :

"Imprinted at London by Felix Kyngston, fo Edmund Weauer, and are to be sold at his shop at the great North -doore of S. Pauls Church 1605."

The work is dedicated to "The^ Right Honovrable, Sir Robert Bertie, Knight Lord Willughby, Lord of Willughby, Berke arid Erisby," and is subscribed by Symonds from his " poore house at Halton-Holgate.'' Then there is an address * To the Christian Reader,' from the pen of one " Gabrie Powel," followed by a * Preface or Introduc- tion ' to Richard Vaughan, Bishop of London in which the author explains and justifies his method of interpretation. In this edition of 1605 the first page of the last leaf is taken up with 'Faults escaped in this Booke ' ; but whether these have been given effect to in the subsequent issue I cannot say.

Of the con tents of the work itself lam not in a position to offer an opinion, nor is this the place to discuss them. But as I have mentioned the name of Bishop Covvper, I shall here transcribe what he says about it, and a curious little bit of contemporary criticism it is (' Works/ 1623, p. 822) :

" William Symonds, printed at London, in the yeere 1606, intitulates his Commentary, ' Pisgah Euangelica' : hee confesseth himselfe, in his Epistle Dedicatory, that the matter of his Exposition is somewhat new, which will bee easily granted of any that reades it. He protests in like manner, that he hath fully satisfied himselfe, whereof the lesse hope remaines that hee shall satisfie others. One thing I must say, by his leaue, it seemes strange he hath not been afraid to inuert the order, not of Chapters onely, but of verses also ; hee hath iumbled them one through another in most con- fused manner, and beaten them, as we say, into an ' Hotch-Potch ' : But God is the God of order, and not of confusion."

As may be imagined, this is a class of book that does not lend itself to quotation ; but the reference to Dante in the following passage is very interesting (p. 245) :

"For hence began that great alteration of religion, which followed, which many amongst the Papists did foresee, whereof one Helteuius is reported to haue assigned the yeere : So did Dante."

A. S.

INSCRIPTIONS AT SAN SEBASTIAN. (See 10 th S. iii. 361, 433.) Quite recently the following inscription, on a slab similar to those at the Credit Lyonnais at Bayonne and San Sebastian, has appeared in roman capitals on the front of the offices of the Comptoir National d'Escompte de Paris in the latter city, where I lately had the plea- sure of witnessing the magnificent receptions

given to Princess Victoria of Battenberg and to King Edward VII. on their entrance to visit the royal family of Spain :

4k Emen trukatzen da erri | danetako dirua eta papera | pagatzeu dira aide guzietako | letrak eta chekak | ala ere | erdaldun-erri aide guzietako | dirugai guziak | eta gafierako [sic] dim tratu denak dauden kucha-etan | nai diran urre | zillar eta balio aundikp | zer nai gauza | emen dakite Euzkaraz | (Bouvais, Paris)."
 * bertan, gordetzen dira j artarako egifiak [ate] J

The translation is :

" Here is changed the money and the paper of all lands, are paid the letters and cheques of all parts : so also all bills of all sides of the land of those who speak no Heuskara, and all drafts over and above (these). In the same way are guarded in hutches which stand made for that purpose gold, silver, and whatever thing(-s) of great value you please, which are wanted. Here they know Heus- kara."

If they know Heuskara, they ought to have put Kuchetan, and to have either omitted the solitary comma, or punctuated the words throughout. Bertan may possibly mean immediately, or in the same place. Moreover, egifiak should be eginak, and gafierako should be ganerako. If the engraver had any diffi- culty in cutting the tilde over the N, the omission would not be without precedent. The n in those words, moreover, is single in some dialects. The n of Castilian was once nn t and in Catalan is written ny. On p. 232: of tk Les Entretiens d'Ariste et d 'Eugene. Nouvelle Edition, ou Les Mots Des Devises sont expliquez. A Paris, M.D.C.XCI," the word Seiiom t occurring in some Castilian verses there quoted, is printed Sefiora ; but the quotation is not in capital letters, and the./? was, no doubt, used because the Parisian printing-house had no n in its fount.

E. S. DODGSON.

" MUZHITEKKA" : A GHOST - WORD. Mr. Howard Collins's useful compilation ' Author and Printer,' second edition, 1905, contains an entry " Muzhik^ Russian peasant, not moujik, mujik ; fern, muzhitekka." This is a good example of what is called a ghost- word, Muzhitekka is quite pretty, but I do not snow it as Russian. I suspect that it should lave been printed imizhitchka.

JAS. PLATT, Jun.

TOM THUMB'S FIRST APPEARANCE IN LON- DON. (See 10 th S. iii. 163, 237, 297, 411, 451 ; v. 37.) In The Antiquary for April Mr. Aleck Abrahams continues his interesting annals of he Egyptian Hall, Piccadilly. I notice that e assigns the advent of Tom Thumb to the ear 1845, although in the columns of 'N. & Q.' ie correctly attributed it to the previous r ear. In turning over some old pamphlets